22.3.12

1. & 2. The change in season always makes me think about new shoes (although, frankly, I think about new shoes all the time). Lately I have been admiring these F-Troupe mesh sandals, as well as these Aldo Riseheels by Preen. Both so cute.
3. As some of you may know, I am currently having two tattoos that I got when I was 18 removed via laser. It is such a disgusting, time-consuming (it will have taken almost a year of treatments for them to fully fade) process that while I have no problems with tattoos on other people, I’m pretty sure I will never get a tattoo again. Caitlin Shearer just released a line of temporary tattoos, which is so great! No more blown out edges, that’s for sure.
4. The Blonde Woman: an ongoing comic by Aidan Koch. I love her illustration style.
5. I sent this Chloé ad, in all its pleat-y, trapeze-y glory, to the designer who is making my wedding dress. Currently obsessed with my dress having some kind of cape attached to it.
6. Speaking of wedding things, I keep looking at Twigs and Honey’s newest collection because it is just so pretty.

Since we had many requests asking if we could sell the Not Forkchops tote, and since we couldn’t, we decided instead to modify it and turn it into a print. It’s available here, if you’re interested.

20.3.12

It is the first day of spring and the weather is glorious. S P R I N G! So happy.

The blossoms photo on this record has me so excited for cherry blossom season (stream Washed Out’s Within and Without here; monitor High Park cherry blossoms here).

A rare occurrence: I let Geoff take my picture, as long as I was able to hide behind clouds.

So much mileage out of the two dozen roses that I bought weeks ago. I just can’t help myself when they’re around. This one was also taken by Geoff, so I suppose he also can’t help himself. He is a plant-loving Taurus after all.

More golden: Diana very kindly sent me a package of the Excel Desserts gum in flavours that we can't get in Canada, and included a package of Gold Edition film from The Impossible Project. So sweet! This film makes me think that Polaroid film should always have a gold frame.

15.3.12

When I was in the 2nd grade, a ballet teacher arranged to hold classes in a room off the library after school. I didn’t know much about ballet as a six year old (in fact, I remember spelling it as “ballay” until I was corrected by a girl in my class), but my father signed me up. I was so excited when we went to Malabar to buy my slippers, black leotard, and pink tights, and wore my little outfit around the house constantly. Once the classes started, though, I was deeply unhappy. The teacher criticized my posture constantly, embarrassingly, harshly; she probably knew instantly that dance was not in my future. Putting my arms “round like a picture frame” was just soboring, and I was shocked and disappointed that I couldn't stand en pointe or do the splits after my first class (again, I didn’t know much about ballet or about how the human body functions; again, I was six years old). The first time I played hooky in my life was because of ballet class: I
scampered straight home after school one day and told my parents that
the class had been canceled (they knew I was lying). I probably would have liked it better if there had been tutus to prance and jump about in.

I do love ballet now, of course, although I don’t have the opportunity to go to performances very often. Yesterday a library colleague offered me a ticket to the National Ballet of Canada’s performance of The Sleeping Beauty with real-life wife and husband Heather Ogden as Princess Aurora (above) and Guillaume Côté as Prince Florimund, which was so generous and kind (thank you, Elena!), and so exciting after watching this video on the Toronto Standard last week. It was a glorious, lush, gorgeous performance, and tears sprang to my eyes multiple times. I hope I can go back soon. For now I will admire these pastel daydream (so blissfully blood and turmoil and sweat-free!) photos of some of the company’s dancers, from principal dancers to the corps.

Incidentally, I have giant bag of broken pointe shoes from the National Ballet in my basement. It’s a long story, and I am only temporarily storing them for a friend, but I wonder how many of these dancers used them.

12.3.12

This weekend I visited the flower markets on Avenue Road. As usual, I was overwhelmed by the roses, and although I was drawn to a few bunches of creamy roses with hints of bright pink along the petal edges, I chose as many white roses as seemed reasonable. They opened up so beautifully over the sunshine-filled days that followed, and I got carried away with taking photos of them using my Instax cameras (including the close-up lens I have for the Instax Mini, as well as some pink filters that I found). I don’t have flowers at home as often as I’d like to have them, and I have to document their sadly, tragically short lives (also, I was procrastinating cleaning my apartment, so there was that as well).

The flash, the colour and texture of the roses, and the hazy manner in which these sorts of photos scan combined to make them look ghost-like and so very far from perfect, qualities I am so fond of in flower photos.

PS: Thank you all so, so much for your sweet comments on the redesign (I started to reply to each comment, but this seems far more efficient than a string of “Thank you”s)! I really did not expect such a reaction, because the change was so simple and straightforward—but I suppose that is the magic of good design: it appears effortless, invisible. And I fully expect that it will not be attractive to some people, but it’s all good. Thanks again, Kate.

PPS: The Dreamlife of Angels is a movie that I saw in a cinema on the day that it was released here in 1998, one that I keep meaning to re-watch.

9.3.12

Notice anything different? After about a year of having it on my to-do list, I had this blog cleaned up in a subtle way. I made use of Kate’s design services, knowing how precise her work always is, and she delivered exactly what I wanted, which was basically a white space-filled, pretty, functional frame that wouldn’t overpower the content. I love it!

I chose the rose header above because it reminded me of illustrations from actual field guides, and because it was so clear (I have received email with the salutation “Dear F”). She pulled the rose from one of my London flower photos—Kate was probably right there when I took the picture, memories 4ever! I usually enjoy doing my own work, but I also enjoy working with someone I know and trust and making use of their talents on a professional level. So, thanks, Kate, and thanks to Geoff for doing all the coding.

5.3.12

I first came across the work of photographer Kasia Bobula in Apartamento magazine, not knowing that she also took beautiful photos backstage at fashion shows. No doubt I’ve said it before, but backstage photos are always so much more interesting than runway photos to me. File under
“photos I wish I had taken,” once again.